French Onion Soup, French Dip Grilled Cheese!

Tonight I made the concoction Rob and I dreamed up last week. IT WAS AMAZING!!! We love french onion soup and we love roast beef sandwiches; so this marriage of the two was divine. The longest part of the cooking process was caramelizing the onions. This may be time consuming, but necessary for the taste of french onion soup. This isn't a throw it together grilled cheese. This is a grilled cheese for those nights you want thing grown up yet comforting like a hug from your mom.

Ingredients

• 3 softball sized onions
• 1 tbsp of canola oil
• 1/2 tsp of thyme
• 1/8 tsp of salt
• 1/4 cup sherry
• a splash of beef broth
• 1/4lb Swiss, Gruyere or whatever cheese you like
• 1/2lb roast beef
• butter
• artisan bread or any hearty crusty bread

Thinly slice the onions and caramelize in oil for 30 minutes, then add the thyme and salt until very brown and soft. At this point add the sherry to deglaze the pan, cook off the alcohol then add a splash of the beef broth. Set aside until cool. Once the onions are cool process into a spread with either a food processor or milling with a knife. (Doing this step now avoids crying like a baby from cutting raw onions :)













Smear the onion mixture on the inside of both slices of bread. Then assemble the sandwich. I like cheese, meat, cheese, but that's my preference. I feel it helps keep the meat in place, butter the outside of the bread and grill like a regular grilled cheese.

I warmed up the remaining beef stock for us to dip our sandwiches in just like a French Dip. 

I like to put my heartier grilled cheeses in the oven on 200F to warm the sandwich thoroughly so it's gooey and delicious for about 15 minutes. This works out well in our house, dinner is ready to serve as Rob walks in the door. 


As you can see, Maddie loved the concoction.